Category | Tractor and Truck Pulling |
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Official website | www.propulling.com |
The Lucas Oil Pro Pulling League, now known as the Pro Pulling League, (sometimes abbreviated as PPL) is an American professional truck and tractor pulling series sponsored by California-based Lucas Oil featuring Super Modified Tractors as well as Pro Modified Four-Wheel Drive Trucks, Super Modified Two-Wheel Drive Trucks, Pro Stock Tractors, Super Farm Tractors, Super Stock Diesel Trucks, Lightweight Super Stock Tractors, Unlimited Super Stock Tractors, and hot rod Semis on their national "Champions Tour." It bills itself as "...showcasing the most extreme vehicles and the most talented pulling drivers in the world." [1] It has been described as the "premiere pulling series" in the United States. [1] [2]
Lucas Oil began their foray into American pulling when they became the title sponsor for the now-absorbed American Tractor Pullers Association in 2003 when it became known as the ATPA Lucas Oil Pulling Series. [3] Forrest Lucas, the founder of Lucas Oil, created the PPL in 2005 after the ATPA folded soon after Lucas Oil's initial sponsorship. [4]
Lucas Oil discontinued ownership and operation in November 2022. In 2023 the Pro Pulling League emerged under new ownership with Lucas Oil returning in a sponsorship role. Now based in Sellersburg, Indiana, the Pro Pulling League is in its 19th year and the largest pulling organization in the world, with 300 events held by the organization and its member-states.
Rules in the PPL are similar to other pulling leagues. [5]
Competitors compete for cash purses in four series: Champion Tour, Silver Series, Midwest Region, and Western Series. There are no full-time pulling teams in the League, only hobbyists (sometimes serious) who are "trying to have as much fun as possible." [6] Many of the pullers in the league are associated with the automotive or farming businesses, and some come from unique unrelated fields, such as dentistry. [7] [8] [9] As of 2016, the PPL has over twenty classes of pulling vehicles one can participate in. [5] As of 2016, direct family members of registered PPL pullers who are graduating high school seniors are eligible for college scholarships. [10]
The Pro Pulling League has a wide presence in digital media. The PPL offers pulling content through their in-house live streaming service, Pro Pulling TV and broadcast partners MAVTV and CBS. The PPL also utilizes popular social media outlets such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok, and X In 2013, PPL announced the creation of its own magazine titled, Pro Pulling Magazine. [11] The magazine went on indefinite hiatus when Lucas Oil discontinued ownership.
Bigfoot is a monster truck. The original Bigfoot began as a 1974 Ford F-250 pickup that was modified by its owner Bob Chandler beginning in 1975. By 1979, the modifications were so extensive, the truck came to be regarded as the first monster truck. Other trucks with the name "Bigfoot" have been introduced in the years since, and it remains a well-known monster truck moniker in the United States.
The GT World Challenge America is a North American auto racing series launched in 1990 by the Sports Car Club of America. It has been managed by the SRO Motorsports Group since 2018, and has been sanctioned by the United States Auto Club since 2017.
Lucas Oil Products, Inc. is an American manufacturer and distributor of automotive oil, additives, and lubricants. It was founded by trucker Forrest Lucas and his wife Charlotte in 1989. The company is a medium size manufacturer of lubricants, including engine oils, greases, gear lubes, as well as problem-solving additives and car-care products. It produces and markets approximately 270 formulations in 40 countries. In the U.S., Lucas Oil is sold in more than 30,000 auto parts stores, displaying the most variety of shelf products of any oil company, and at truck stops nationwide. Lucas Oil has its plants in the United States. The original plant in Corona, California, which also housed Lucas Oil Corporate Headquarters and several affiliated companies, was closed in late 2022, moving the corporate HQ to Indianapolis, Indiana.
Truck and tractor pulling, also known as power pulling, is a form of a motorsport competition in which antique or modified tractors pull a heavy drag or sled along an 11-meter-wide (35 ft), 100-meter-long (330 ft) track, with the winner being the tractor that pulls the drag the farthest. Tractor pulling is popular in certain areas of the United States, Mexico, Canada, Europe, Australia, Brazil, South Africa, Vietnam, India and New Zealand. The sport is known as the world's most powerful motorsport, due to the multi-engined modified tractor pullers.
Red Horse Racing was an American professional stock car racing team that last competed in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. The team was based in Mooresville, North Carolina. It was co-owned by former Mobil 1 marketing executive Tom DeLoach and Fox NASCAR broadcaster Jeff Hammond, who bought the team from the family team of Brandon Whitt, Clean Line Motorsports. The team last fielded the No. 7 Toyota Tundra full-time for Brett Moffitt, and the No. 17 Tundra full-time for Timothy Peters. The team was noticeably known for often having no sponsors on their trucks despite fielding multiple full-time entries for many seasons. This situation could only last so long as on May 22, 2017, DeLoach announced that the team would shut down effective immediately due to a lack of funding.
MAVTV is an American cable and satellite television channel owned by the automotive lubricant company Lucas Oil, a ubiquitous presence in the motorsports world, which mainly airs programming focused around motorsports and programming for automotive enthusiasts. CJ Olivares serves as the network's president.
TNT Motorsports was a popular promoter of monster truck races, tractor pulls, and occasionally mud racing in the 1980s. TNT was an acronym for “Trucks n Tractors” founded by the late Billy Joe Miles of Owensboro, Kentucky. Events were shown on Powertrax on ESPN, Trucks and Tractor Power on TNN, and the syndicated Tuff Trax. In 1988, TNT produced 77 shows that it estimated drew 1 million fans. In 1989, the company had $12 million in revenue.
Seekonk Speedway is a family entertainment venue that features racing of all kinds on a semi-banked 1/3 mile asphalt-paved oval, located on U.S. Route 6 in Seekonk, Massachusetts.
The Mid-Am Racing Series, formerly Mid American Stock Car Series, is an elite sportsman traveling stock car racing series in the Midwestern United States. The cars are based on a 108" metric stock frame, less costly suspension parts and a maximum of 358 cubic inch engine. The car's roll cage and chassis were made of a design very similar to the same chassis a previous design of NASCAR cup chassis, but have also included more modern safety features such as plated door bars and the "Earnhardt bar" which runs from the roof to the dash. The series runs primarily on paved racetracks but also appears on dirt and road courses. The series is the highest form of racing available to sportsman-style, GM metric chassis stock cars.
Empire State Pullers, known to many of its pullers as ESP, is a truck and tractor pulling sanctioning body. It conducts pulls at circuits throughout New York State. ESP began sanctioning events in the Lucas Oil owned Pro Pulling League in 2007.
R+L Carriers is a privately owned American freightshipping company based in Wilmington, Ohio, which grew over the course of 50 years from one truck to a fleet of 21,000 tractors and trailers. The company serves all 48 contiguous American states plus Canada, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Dominican Republic.
Summit Racing Equipment is an automotive parts retailer with four retail stores and distribution centers located in Tallmadge, Ohio; Sparks, Nevada; McDonough, Georgia; and Arlington, Texas. Summit Racing Equipment is also involved in motorsports and other events as a sponsor.
TORC: The Off-Road Championship (TORC) was an American short course off-road racing series. It tours throughout the United States featuring professional four and two-wheel-drive Trophy Trucks along with a Pro Light class. TORC was founded by off-road racing driver Ricky Johnson in 2009. It was known as the Traxxas TORC Series, owing to title sponsor Traxxas, from 2009 to 2013. It was purchased by The Armory in August 2013. It was sanctioned and officiated by the United States Auto Club (USAC) since its inception.
The Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series, also known as LOORRS, was a short course off-road racing series in the United States and Mexico. Following the bankruptcy of the CORR series in 2008, Lucas Oil founded LOORRS in 2009, featuring racing events in Arizona, California, Nevada, Missouri, as well as Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico. In 2020, the series was discontinued due to uncertainty stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Off-road racing is a form of motorsports consisting of specially-modified vehicles including cars, SUVs, trucks, motorbikes, quadbikes and buggies racing in off-road environments.
Jared Landers is an American professional dirt and stock car racing driver. He currently competes in the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series, driving the No. 777 car for Double L Motorsports.
Sheldon Michael Creed is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, driving the No. 18 Toyota Supra for Joe Gibbs Racing.
Fury Race Cars, officially styled as FURY Race Cars, is an American race car manufacturer and professional Late Model and stock car racing team. The company was founded in 2016 by Darius Grala, Tony Eury Jr. and Jeff Fultz, all championship-winning veterans in various forms of motorsports. The team manufactures race cars and chassis for NASCAR, the ARCA Menards Series, and other late model and modified racing series around the United States, The team formerly fielded a part-time NASCAR Xfinity Series team in 2018, the No. 61 Ford Mustang for Kaz Grala.
Kyle LeDuc was an American professional racing driver. He mainly competed in short course off-road truck racing, where he had seven Pro 4 class championships, six of which came in the Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series (LOORRS), and over 100 career wins.
Sarah Burgess is an Australian professional racing driver and crew chief. She has experience in multiple disciplines such as drifting, rallycross, short course off-road racing, and stock car racing.
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